Fantasy Football Tonight 8/30
A LOOK BACK AT SUPERDRAFT
Now that I am back in the safe warm comforts of my home office, I reflect on my wild and crazy weekend spent in Las Vegas while attending the star studded Fantasy Football Superdraft event.
For starters, I must say it was an honor to be asked by Eric Simon, the founder of Superdraft to be a part of this wonderful event. I got to meet a lot of great people, talk with leaders in the fantasy sports industry, attend a few celebrity hosted VIP parties, promote Fantasy Football Search and visit a city that I have grown to love in Las Vegas.
This was the first year of Superdraft but in talking with the founders and all of the powers that be it will most likely not be the last. Being a first year event that had promotions spanning the entire city of Las Vegas, there were bound to be some hiccups and miscalculations along the way which there were. The biggest problem was when the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino lost their Wi-Fi capabilities in the middle of the Saturday draft spectacular. Although this had nothing to do with Superdraft or its organizers, this was a big problem that nearly derailed our expert league and our Fantasy Football Tonight Podcast for that day. But, everybody there stuck it out and a near disaster was cleaned up in about a half an hour.
Here are some of the other highlights of my weekend at Superdraft:
Much was made of me and Matthew Berry being together again after a couple years running of my so called hostility towards him at other fantasy events across the country. I think we started to peel back the onion a bit on Berry this weekend. Maybe both of us were over-served to a degree but for the first time in several meetings with him I felt that he was unusually candid and almost honest during the talks. He referred to how his role at ESPN has him talking up certain company mandated players instead of dishing out thoughts on some lesser known entities of which fantasy players crave. Berry suggested that he is kept to a brief script that doesn't allow much for in depth analysis of fantasy players and their roles much like you find right here at Fantasy Football Search. My good friend Ted Schuster and I discussed our talks with Berry after we left the Hard Rock on Friday and we both agreed that we've started developing empathy for Matthew Berry. The guys obviously knows something about fantasy sports and he has a long history of success before arriving at the corporate giant ESPN. The problem with Berry is really just an extension of a problem with ESPN. They are a corporation that shares revenues with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. They have become a little out of touch with the common sports fan, especially those outside of the east coast of the United States.
It was a blast doing our Fantasy Football Tonight podcasts LIVE poolside on Thursday and then right from the floor of the Superdraft on Saturday. It was my first experience hosting a LIVE on location broadcast and despite some issues with the volume level of our hosts and a few guests, they both went off without a hitch. If you missed the shows live, go ahead and listen on demand whenever you get a chance or download the shows to your iPod or MP3 player. In fact, for all those who go back and listen to the broadcasts or download them, I will send you a free Fantasy Football Search T-shirt as a thank you.
I am a longtime Howard Stern fan, and for me it was a pleasure to meet his producer Gary Dell'abate over the weekend. Gary is as down to earth and nice a guy as there is despite his enormous wealth and popularity. Gary rocked his Jets T-shirts and jerseys all weekend and would have been hard to distinguish from the rest of the crowd if not for somebody giving him a microphone every now and then.
Speaking of Gary and microphones, shouting "Ba-Ba-Booey!" into my microphone during the commissioners corner was one of the highlights of the trip for me. It got a good reaction from Stern fans but wasn't that much of a distraction from the show. At least I hope not!
The turnout for Friday's commissioners corner was pretty disappointing but then again it was an earlier event and that just doesn't fly in Vegas. But, the after party by the pool before, during and after the George Clinton concert was rockin'. Fantasy football might be a game for nerds, but I must say us nerd sure know how to party.
There are so many more highlights of this brief 3 days trip that I could go on and on forever about. I will be covering some more highlights of the trip on the Tuesday edition of Fantasy Football Tonight. For now, I just want to get settled back at the homestead and start pounding out all the fantasy football information that you guys have come to depend on to bring you championships. Draft Kit members will learn of all the inside information and scoops that I picked up during the weekend. I will be going through and posting the main stories right here over the next several days. As always, if you guys have a question or want to hear more about the Superdraft just throw me an email and it will be done.
Got a tip or a question for me? Email me at thefantasyscout@gmail.com
Sign up TODAY for the Fantasy Football Search Season Pass
Follow me on Twitter: fftonight
Now that I am back in the safe warm comforts of my home office, I reflect on my wild and crazy weekend spent in Las Vegas while attending the star studded Fantasy Football Superdraft event.
For starters, I must say it was an honor to be asked by Eric Simon, the founder of Superdraft to be a part of this wonderful event. I got to meet a lot of great people, talk with leaders in the fantasy sports industry, attend a few celebrity hosted VIP parties, promote Fantasy Football Search and visit a city that I have grown to love in Las Vegas.
This was the first year of Superdraft but in talking with the founders and all of the powers that be it will most likely not be the last. Being a first year event that had promotions spanning the entire city of Las Vegas, there were bound to be some hiccups and miscalculations along the way which there were. The biggest problem was when the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino lost their Wi-Fi capabilities in the middle of the Saturday draft spectacular. Although this had nothing to do with Superdraft or its organizers, this was a big problem that nearly derailed our expert league and our Fantasy Football Tonight Podcast for that day. But, everybody there stuck it out and a near disaster was cleaned up in about a half an hour.
Here are some of the other highlights of my weekend at Superdraft:
Much was made of me and Matthew Berry being together again after a couple years running of my so called hostility towards him at other fantasy events across the country. I think we started to peel back the onion a bit on Berry this weekend. Maybe both of us were over-served to a degree but for the first time in several meetings with him I felt that he was unusually candid and almost honest during the talks. He referred to how his role at ESPN has him talking up certain company mandated players instead of dishing out thoughts on some lesser known entities of which fantasy players crave. Berry suggested that he is kept to a brief script that doesn't allow much for in depth analysis of fantasy players and their roles much like you find right here at Fantasy Football Search. My good friend Ted Schuster and I discussed our talks with Berry after we left the Hard Rock on Friday and we both agreed that we've started developing empathy for Matthew Berry. The guys obviously knows something about fantasy sports and he has a long history of success before arriving at the corporate giant ESPN. The problem with Berry is really just an extension of a problem with ESPN. They are a corporation that shares revenues with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. They have become a little out of touch with the common sports fan, especially those outside of the east coast of the United States.
It was a blast doing our Fantasy Football Tonight podcasts LIVE poolside on Thursday and then right from the floor of the Superdraft on Saturday. It was my first experience hosting a LIVE on location broadcast and despite some issues with the volume level of our hosts and a few guests, they both went off without a hitch. If you missed the shows live, go ahead and listen on demand whenever you get a chance or download the shows to your iPod or MP3 player. In fact, for all those who go back and listen to the broadcasts or download them, I will send you a free Fantasy Football Search T-shirt as a thank you.
I am a longtime Howard Stern fan, and for me it was a pleasure to meet his producer Gary Dell'abate over the weekend. Gary is as down to earth and nice a guy as there is despite his enormous wealth and popularity. Gary rocked his Jets T-shirts and jerseys all weekend and would have been hard to distinguish from the rest of the crowd if not for somebody giving him a microphone every now and then.
Speaking of Gary and microphones, shouting "Ba-Ba-Booey!" into my microphone during the commissioners corner was one of the highlights of the trip for me. It got a good reaction from Stern fans but wasn't that much of a distraction from the show. At least I hope not!
The turnout for Friday's commissioners corner was pretty disappointing but then again it was an earlier event and that just doesn't fly in Vegas. But, the after party by the pool before, during and after the George Clinton concert was rockin'. Fantasy football might be a game for nerds, but I must say us nerd sure know how to party.
There are so many more highlights of this brief 3 days trip that I could go on and on forever about. I will be covering some more highlights of the trip on the Tuesday edition of Fantasy Football Tonight. For now, I just want to get settled back at the homestead and start pounding out all the fantasy football information that you guys have come to depend on to bring you championships. Draft Kit members will learn of all the inside information and scoops that I picked up during the weekend. I will be going through and posting the main stories right here over the next several days. As always, if you guys have a question or want to hear more about the Superdraft just throw me an email and it will be done.
Got a tip or a question for me? Email me at thefantasyscout@gmail.com
Sign up TODAY for the Fantasy Football Search Season Pass
Follow me on Twitter: fftonight
posted by Jeff Mans at
5:30 PM
1 Comments:
Awww...I'm glad to hear you and Matthew Berry wear T-shirts that say "My Best Friend" with arrows pointing to each other now. But really, what could you expect from a Disney-run company?
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home